02232022 – Luke 6. 27-38
Jesus is teaching. He taught a lot. He was good at it and RESPECTED for it. It brought him HONOR and FAME among his followers.
“Rabbouni,” people called him. The expression means “my beloved teacher.” Not just a teacher (a rabbi) but “a beloved teacher” – rabbouni.
But this teaching was pointed. It was purposeful. It was serious and heartfelt.
Apparently, REDRESS, REVENGE, RETRIBUTION, and VENGEANCE was a “continual problem.”
It was an ongoing problem, even for “people OF FAITH.”
It was NOT just a Jewish/Roman problem. It was NOT just because the area was conquered by Rome. It was a “PEOPLE PROBLEM.” A FAMILY problem. A NEIGHBOR problem. Even a problem among THE FAITHFUL, the RELIGIOUS.
So, Jesus is NOT scolding. He is not shaming. He is NOT pointing fingers…or brow beating, anyone. He is very simply “teaching.”
His is “an attempt” – at showing a better way…a more REASONABLE WAY.
REVENGE is a “doomed attempt” to “eliminate SHAME” and “increase STATURE” by “asserting DOMINANCE.”
It fails because “ASSERTING dominance” does not “increase stature,” instead it usually “increases VIOLENCE.”
You do something to me. I do something to you. You do something EVEN WORSE to me. Where are we then?
“REMORSE cannot be COERCED,” it has to be discovered.
All evidence indicates that “forgiveness” INCREASES “self-esteem” and “decreases anxiety.”
Anything else only COMPOUNDS the problem.
But, this IS NOT just some kind of a nice, gentle, mundane lesson, either.
It is difficult. A challenge. It always has been. It is hard. It takes guts and work.
These are not just “moral categories” or “nice possibilities.” He is teaching in all sincerity.
He expects …
He TOTALLY EXPECTS that people will want to LEARN from this teaching, INCORPORATE this teaching INTO their lives and LIVE this teaching out in real TIME…in the REAL world.
There is NO DOUBT, “life CAN BE difficult at times.” There is NO DOUBT that people can be difficult at times…that includes ALL OF US. We can all be DIFFICULT sometimes.
Life – definitely can have ITS MOMENTS.
IT IS however the “last words…”
The “VERY LAST WORDS” of this teaching from Luke that bring it all together:
“Be merciful, just as YOUR FATHER is merciful. Emanate God! Be like him.
Do NOT judge, and you will not be judged.
Do NOT condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you WILL be forgiven.”
Implied here, is that if you judge, if you condemn, if you do not forgive, that you will be judged, condemned and not forgiven.
NICE words. TOUGH job.
HARD TO DO when you are not sitting here in church, shaking your head in agreement.
HARDER STILL when there is a CONFRONTATION. Or, when you are caught up IN THE MOMENT.
We would rather NOT FORGIVE the “drug-crazed thugs” who mugged and robbed that little old grandmother on her way home from the grocery store.
We would rather NOT FORGIVE the drunk driver who ran over our little neighbor boy, around the corner.
And we would rather NOT FORGIVE the driver who was acting like a total jerk on the freeway.
Sigmund Freud understood ALL THIS – he said,
“One must forgive one’s enemies, but NOT BEFORE they have been HANGED.”
It is a dog-EAT-dog world out there, not a dog-FORGIVE-dog world. Pay back time is real! We call it “poetic justice.” We also say, some people DESERVE their “just deserts or REWARDS.”
People dream about JUSTICE and getting EVEN. People get CONSUMED by revenge.
Do YOU need to forgive someone?
“To forgive is to put down your 50-pound pack after a 10-mile climb up a mountain. It is relief. It feels great.
To forgive is to fall into a chair after running a marathon. And to wait until your heart calms down in your chest.
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that prisoner IS YOU.
To forgive is to reach back into your “hurting past” and “recreate it” in your memory so that you can begin again.”
To Forgive is to WIN, and to set yourself FREE, and to BREATHE again unencumbered. Amen.